What is a man? For millennia humans have sought to answer that question, drawing both from what seems obvious to them from nature because of the physical make-up of males versus females as well as from the influences of individual cultures, philosophy and religion.

The image of masculinity in America has almost always been one of the rugged individual, though modern feminism has sought (sometimes, I fear, literally) to emasculate that image. A few years ago a funny phenomenon developed that I think says a lot about the American view of masculinity: Chuck Norris jokes.

Some people can juggle chainsaws; Chuck Norris can juggle people juggling chainsaws.

Fear of spiders is called arachnophobia; fear of tight spaces is called claustrophobia; fear of Chuck Norris is called “Logic.”

Chuck Norris has a grizzly bear carpet in his room. The bear isn’t dead; it is just afraid to move.